HDD to SSD

[PeaceWalker93]

Hi guys, a buddy of mine gave me yestarday a 60GB Mushkin Callisto Deluxe SSD, and I was wondering what's the easiest way to set it up, I have a WD Black 1TB as a primary drive and a 1,5TB Samsung for media stuff. The problem is that I have like 550/600 gigs in games, some of them heavily moded and I really don't want top install the OS again in the SSD and then format the WD and install everything again. So my question is, could I copy my games folder to the Samsung drive, then delete it so I have enough space to clone the WD to the ssd? (And then copy all the games again from the Samsung to the freshly formated WD black)

[silentmelodies]

Dont bother with cloning. Just install fresh on SSD and boot from it.

[PeaceWalker93]

Will I be able to play the games I had installed already? But then again I'm still having 2 instances of W10 installed If i do that

[Captain_WD]

23 hours ago, PeaceWalker93 said:

~snip~

Hey there

 

Doing a fresh install of the OS on the SSD would require you to reinstall all your applications and games too due to the new registry of the new OS so if you don't want to bother with that a fresh install isn't really an option. 

 

One thing you could do is try clearing your C partition as much as you can from all data and see which games you can move from it to other partitions without the need to reinstall them (as a simple copy/paste won't really work) and then try shrinking it down to below the size of the SSD with a third-party tool and then find a tool that can clone only your C partition to your SSD, clear the old C-partition of the HDD and have a somewhat stable system without the need to reinstall anything. This involves quite a lot of IFs and tinkering and thus a lot of risk for your data so I'd consider if reinstalling the games with the mods is too much to bother.

 

Captain_WD.

[PeaceWalker93]

Thanks, I think I'm going to wait and buy a bigger SSD and reinstall all my stuff properly then, I don't think 60 gigs of SSD are worth the hassle in my case. 

[Captain_WD]

8 hours ago, PeaceWalker93 said:

~snip~

Another thing you could do is install another OS on that SSD and see how it goes. Dual-booting is a good thing if you have a use for it (test things, create VMs, play with it, have another OS for simple work things such as browsing and office usage, etc.). 

Feel free to ask if there's anything else I can do for you

Captain_WD.

[B4rt997]

I have a problem with mine, the SSD is 120GB so I will not store all the files on the computer. I want to put the OS on the SSD however I think I lost the Windows Disk with the Key. Is there any way that I could copy/clone the OS and put it on the SSD from HDD? Is there any software that could to that? 

[Captain_WD]

10 hours ago, B4rt997 said:

~snip~

Hey B4rt997,

 

There are such software applications that can clone only the OS partition, but this is not really recommended. I would suggest creating a bootable flash drive with the required tools and files from MS's website and then get the key from your computer. Assuming you can boot your computer without any problems, you can easily create a simple VBscript that will read the value out of the registry and then translate it into the format that you need for reinstalling. Copy and paste the following into a Notepad window:

 

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 

You’ll need to use File -> Save As, change the “Save as type” to “All Files” and then name it productkey.vbs or something similar ending with the vbs extension. Once you’ve saved it, you can just double-click and the popup window will show you your product key. Protip: If you use CTRL + C when the popup window is active, it will copy the contents of the window to the clipboard, and then you can paste it into Notepad or somewhere else.

 

This would enable you to make a clean fresh install of the OS on the SSD and avoid any driver issues or other problems that may come from a cloning procedure.

 

Feel free to ask if there are questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

[B4rt997]

@Captain_WD

 

Hi Captain,

Thanks for your response, If I do that will I have to install all the games and software that I have on my HDD? or all that data will stay on the HDD? and assuming I have installed the OS on the SSD will the OS on the HDD delete it self or I will have to remove it myself?  

[Captain_WD]

1 hour ago, B4rt997 said:

~snip~

Reinstalling your OS creates a new registry which requires you to reinstall any software that you have installed on the old OS. You can still see all data on your old drive, including the installed applications, but you won't be able to run them. The rest of the data such as media and other files will still be accessible. 

 

Once you set up your OS on the SSD you can get rid of the old OS partition and other system partitions on the old drive from Disk Management.

 

One tip from me - when you are installing the OS to the SSD make sure the HDD is disconnect it so the installer doesn't put the system reserved partitions on the HDD as it is known for doing so. Once done you can reconnect the drive and access all your data.

 

Captain_WD.

[B4rt997]

13 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

Hey B4rt997,

 

There are such software applications that can clone only the OS partition, but this is not really recommended. I would suggest creating a bootable flash drive with the required tools and files from MS's website and then get the key from your computer. Assuming you can boot your computer without any problems, you can easily create a simple VBscript that will read the value out of the registry and then translate it into the format that you need for reinstalling. Copy and paste the following into a Notepad window:

 

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))

Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 

You’ll need to use File -> Save As, change the “Save as type” to “All Files” and then name it productkey.vbs or something similar ending with the vbs extension. Once you’ve saved it, you can just double-click and the popup window will show you your product key. Protip: If you use CTRL + C when the popup window is active, it will copy the contents of the window to the clipboard, and then you can paste it into Notepad or somewhere else.

 

This would enable you to make a clean fresh install of the OS on the SSD and avoid any driver issues or other problems that may come from a cloning procedure.

 

Feel free to ask if there are questions! 

 

Captain_WD.

Captain, 

I have done the bit with the copy and paste, it shows me the key but when I enter the same key and when I was about it install fresh windows the same key that I entered was invalid? Any idea why? 

[Captain_WD]

9 hours ago, B4rt997 said:

~snip~

You should check with Microsoft if that key is valid for the OS that you are using it with. The guys there changed some things and if you used that key on an older system and then upgraded you may no longer be able to reinstall the new OS with it. I would try with the original OS and see if that works. Contact MS for more info.

 

Captain_WD.

[PeaceWalker93]

On 18/5/2016 at 9:42 AM, Captain_WD said:

Another thing you could do is install another OS on that SSD and see how it goes. Dual-booting is a good thing if you have a use for it (test things, create VMs, play with it, have another OS for simple work things such as browsing and office usage, etc.). 

Feel free to ask if there's anything else I can do for you

Captain_WD.

I think that s what I'm going to do. An HD with an OS always comes in handy to diagnose other computers. not sure If i will install ubuntu or W10, i'll think about it, thanks for all the answers!